Muzzle-triggered gun



Aug. 25, 1964 c. E.w1LL.cox ETAI.. 3,145,494

MuzzLE-TRIGGERED GUN Filed July 22, 1963 3,145,494 MUZZLE-TRIGGERED GUNCharles E. Willcox, 451 N. Doherty Drive, Beverly Hills, Calif., andDonald G. Setty, 1632 Mouutcrest Drive, Los Angeles 69, Calif.

Filed July 22, 1963, Ser. No. 296,802 4 Claims. (Cl. 42-1) Thisinvention relates to a gun which is triggered by pressure of thetarget-body on the muzzle, and particularly to such a gun in which ringis achieved when a spring-piston is released by telescopic actionagainst a cam latch.

Heretofore, skin divers have been almost defenseless against sharks, orother large fish or animals, which might threaten and attack underwater. The resistance of water is so great that underwater guns,harpoons, and spears have no lethal effect on a large fish or animalbeyond the distance of a few feet.

Small explosive cartridges have been used on the ends of spears andarrows as a means for launching an auxiliary dart upon Contact with thetarget fish. These are practically useless against a large fish comingin for attack. Movement of the target is too rapid for accuracy, and thetarget is very likely to be missed entirely, and the weapon lost to theskin diver so far as the needs of the immediate situation are concerned.Even if the dart actually hits a fish such as a shark, it may notpenetrate the extremely tough hide, or if it does, may serve only toinfuriate the sh.

The defensive need of the skin diver is for something he can retain inhis hand and use immediately next to himself where he can accuratelypress the weapon home against the attacking fish. However, thisprecludes any large explosive charges, since the open explosion of asubstantial charge near the skin diver would severly injure the skindiver as well as the target fish.

It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a gun,suitable as an underwater gun, in which the barrel serves as a gas tubefor introducing a large volume of the cartridge explosion gases directlyinto the body of the target fish.

It is another major object of the invention to provide amuzzle-triggered gun in which great security against accidental firingis provided by positive safety means.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an underwater gun ofthe type described in which the entire tiring tube, and cartridge aredismounted from the gun during the cooking operation.

Another object is to provide a gun of the type described in which firingis accomplished by telescopic action of the gun assembly, to release aspring-firing mechanism in a simple and positive manner to be describedhereinafter.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention will be best understoodfrom the following description of a specific embodiment, read inconnection with the accompanying illustrations in which:

FIGURE l is a side elevational view of a gun constructed according tothe invention, shown in cocked position and ready for firing;

FIGURE 2 is a front or muzzle view of the gun of FIGURE l;

FIGURE 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the gun of FIGURES 1 and 2as viewed at a vertical plane through the axis of the gun, in thedirection of the arrows 3--3 of FIGURE 2; and,

FIGURE 4 is a perspective view of an exploded assembly of the principaltelescoping parts.

In FIGURE l, the gun is identified generally by the numeral 10. Theprincipal parts seen listing from the muzzle end to the cocking handleare the firing tube 11,

Patented Aug. 25, 1964 the breech block member 12, the piston housing13, a rearwardly projecting piston rod 14, and a cooking handle 15.

The sectional view of FIGURE 3 and the exploded assembly seen inperspective in FIGURE 4 reveals that breech block member 12 and pistonhousing 13 form a telescoping assembly. Breech block member 12 iscomprised primarily of a relatively massive forward body 20, serving asbreech block to firing tube 11, and a rearwardly extending sleeve 21 inthe form of a cylindrical tube. The forward end 22 of the breech blockbody 20 is reduced in diameter and externally threaded, whereas, therear end of fire tube 11 is internally threaded at 23 to providethreadable attachment for firing tube 11 to breech block member 12.

The breech block body 20 is provided with an axial firing pin bore 24 inwhich a firing pin 25 is reciprocable. Preferably, the rear end offiring pin 25 is provided with an enlarged striking head 26.

It will be seen from a front view of FIGURE 2 at the explodeddisassembly of FIGURE 4 that safety against accidental striking ofstriker head 26, by means to be described hereinafter, is provided by atransverse safety pin 27, which passes horizontally through the forwardportion of sleeve 21, but just to the rear of striker head 26, through apair of diametrically opposite openings 2S.

A longitudinal slot 29 is provided in the upper surface of sleeve 21 forreception of a latch-trigger means to be described hereinafter.

Firing tube 11 is very short, but sufficient in length to contain ashotgun shell 30. Preferably, the shotgun shell 30 is loaded in astainless steel cartridge, and the breech end of the shell is providedwith external annual shoulder 31, which is closely received in aninternal annular groove 32, so that shell 3! is firmly held in positionagainst the forward end of breech block body 20 when the firing tube 11is threadably assembled to breech block member 12.

An important and preferred feature of the device of the invention isthat it kills not only by the shot contained in the shell 30, but, moreimportantly, by the direct introduction of the explosion gases into thebody of the shark, or other major target. A sharks hide is extremelytough, so that it must be penetrated by the bullet or shot at or verynear the muzzle of any gun, lest lthe velocity of the projectile be toolmuch reduced by intervening water. Moreover, even bullet penetration isnot necessarily enough. The shark even if wounded mortally may havesufficient remaining minutes `of life to launch a very dangerous attackagainst the skin diver. In the present invention, the forward end of themuzzle is provided with an annular ring of barbs 33 which serve toanchor the muzzle of a gun against the body of a shark, and at the sametime seal in the explosion gases. When the gun 1@ is fired, the metalpellets from the shotgun shell 30 blast a small hole into the side ofthe shark, and are lost in the internal organs of the shark.Immediately, the explosion gases inflate the body of the shark and burstmany vital organs. The shark is instantly disabled and killed. The bodyrises to the surface because of the contained air, and the skin diverachieves instant and effective security. Note, moreover, that theresultant desire is achieved even if the gases are introduced into thesharks body cavity at some relatively non-vital point.

FIGURES 3 and 4 reveal that piston-housing 13 has a forwardly extendingcylindrical barrel 4@ which is closely received into the interior ofrearwardly extending sleeve 21. Telescopic action between barrel 40 andthe rearwardly extending sleeve 21 is limited by an external annularshoulder 41, which is larger in external diameter than sleeve 21, in thepreferred embodiment of the invention, in order to provide suitablemounting means for the trigger-latch mechanism to be describedhereinafter.

The interior of barrel 40 provides a cylinder in which a hollow piston42 is reciprocable. Integrally assembled with piston 42 is the pistonrody 14 which is reciprocable in a piston rod bore 44, of reduceddiameter in the rear portion of piston housing 13.

A powerful spiral spring 45 encircles piston rod 14 l within and behindpiston 42 so as to powerfully urge piston rod 14V forward toward strikerhead 26. It will be noted that the forward end of piston rod 14 isprovided with an enlarged annular shoulder 46, and a forward projectingstriker head 47.

Undesired disassembly of barrel 40 from sleeve 21 is prevented by meansof a limiting screw Si), which passes through threaded opening 51 in thesidewall of the sleeve 21, and is received in a longitudinal limit screwslot 52 in the sidewall of barrel 40. AItwill be seen that the inventionis a type of spring gun. Thus, firing of the shell 30 is accomplished bypower stored in spring 45, whenvthe latter is released from a compressedcondition by unlatching of a latch 60.

In a preferred embodiment, latch 60 is in the form of a leaf springmounted at its rearward end on the shoulder 41 by means of a mountingscrew 61 fitted into internally threaded bore 62.

The latch 60 extends forwardly in a resilient spring portion 63 to ahook or dog member 64 which is adapted to hook over piston rod shoulder46Vand retain it and piston 42 in a retracted position with spring 45compressed for tiring. A convenient way of forming dog 64 Vfrom leafspring material is to fold down two portions on each side as illustratedin the perspective view of FIGURE 4.

Barrell 40 is provided with a slot opening 65, which aligns with theslot opening 29 in sleeve 21 to provide a path for dog 64 into and outof latching position ahead of shoulder 46.

It will be appreciated that the resilient leaf spring portion'63functions as a resilient latch hinge. It readily Yyields to n'gerpressure when the gun is cocked, so that the operator can pull back oncooking handle 15 retracting piston rod 14 and piston 42, until dog 64can enter into the interior of barrel 40 and hook over shoulder 56,retaining spring 45 in a compressed condition ready for firing. Safetypin 27 can then be inserted through vopening 28 to prevent inadvertentfiring. After the safety pin Y 28 is inserted, andonly after that, thefiring tube 11 may be loaded withshell 30 and threaded into its positionon threads 22. f Y

Latch 60 isforced outwardly to the position indicated in phantom line inFIGURE 3 at 60a by telescoping action of breech block member 12backwardly over the barrel '40 of piston housing 13. This isaccomplished by virtue of a camming action between breech blockmember'12 and latch 60. In the preferred embodiment, the externaldiameter of sleeve 21 is substantially less than that of breech blockbody 20, and the latter is provided with a `rearwardly convergingconical camV surface 66, rwhich engages a correspondingly forwardlyinclined camV surfaceV 67l on the'forward deectable end of resilientlatch mem- ;ber 60.

Thus, as telescoping action causes the two Vcamming -surfaces 66 and 67to come into contact, latch member 60 is forced outwardly to position a,and piston 42 is vreleased.v Piston 42 and piston rod 14 are thenforcibly driven forward by compressed spring 45, piston rod head 47,then strikes striker head 26 and drives firing pinrZS Yforward to recartridge 30.

It 'will be Vnoted that this ring action vcannot occur until aftersafety pin 27 has 'been retracted from the Vholes 28. It will be furthernoted that safety pin 27 is sufficiently reduced at its central portion2,71 sothat ring pin 24 cannot be driven to firing position by con-Vtact between firing pin head 26' and safety pin'27. Ex-

ternal access to firing pin striker head 26 may be had through hole 68in sleeve 21 and making slot 69 in barrel 40. Thus, if desired, a toolmay be inserted to retract firing pin 2S, or an additional safety wedgemay be inserted forward of firing pin striker head 26 through hole 68,and not withdrawn until it is desired to ready gun 10 for firing.

lt will be understood that our invention is not restricted to the exactconstruction of the specic embodiment, preferred though it is,illustrated in the drawings and described in the foregoing description.On the contrary, the invention comprehends all variations of theinventive combination, which retain the spirit of substantialequivalents of the invention as broadly defined by the terms of theappended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent is:

l. A gun triggered by muzzle contact, which gun includes: a breech blockmember having an axial firing pin means and a rearwardlyprojectingsleeve; a piston housing telescopically received into said sleeve; apiston reciprocable within said piston housing; a spring within saidpiston housing urging said piston towards said firing pin means; afiring tube means on the forward end of said breech block member; apiston-retaining latch mounted on said piston housing rearward of saidsleeve, and located to hold said spring in a condition of compression; alatch cam on said latch having a camming surface extending forwardly atan angle with respect to the axis of said telescoping sleeve and pistonhousing; and a mating breech block camming surface on said breech blockmember formed to move said latch cam out of latching engagement withsaid piston when said breech block mem ber is telescoped rearwardly oversaid piston housing, whereby said piston is released, and driven by saidspring, against said firing pin means.

2. A gun Ytriggered by muzzle contact, which gun includes: a breechblock member having an axial tiring pin means and a rearwardlyprojecting sleeve; a piston housing telescopically received into saidsleeve; a piston reciprocable within said piston housing, and a pistonretraction means extending from said piston through said piston'housing;a spiral spring within said piston housing rearward of said piston, andurging said piston towards the rear end of said firing pin means; afiring tube means threadably received on the forward end of said breechblock member; a piston retaining latch mounted on said piston housingrearward of said sleeve, said piston latch comprising a forwardlyextending leaf spring member, andY inwardly extending piston latchmember resiliently urgedk by said leaf spring member into engagementwith saidrpiston through mating openings in the side walls of saidpiston housing and said sleeve; a latch cam'on `the forward endV ofsaidlatch having a camming surface extending forwardly at an angle withrespect to the l'axis offsaid telescoping sleeve and piston housing; and

- a mating breechY block camming surface on said breech 'bore and arearwardly projecting sleeve; a piston housing telescopically receivedinto said sleeve; a piston re ciprocable within said'piston housing, anda piston rod extending rcarwardly from said piston through a piston rodbore in the rear of said piston housing; a spiral spring within saidpiston housing rearward of said piston, and

`urging said pis/ton towards the rear end of said tiring pin bore; aringpin reciprocable in said firing pinV bore, Vsaid firing pin havingan enlarged striker headY rearward Aof said firing pin bore and enclosedwithin the forward end of'said sleeve; a firing tube means threadablyreceived u on the forward end of said breech block member; a pistonretaining latch mounted on said piston housing, said piston latchcomprising a spring member, and inwardly extending piston latch memberresiliently urged by said spring member into engagement with said pistonthrough mating openings in the side walls of said piston housing andsaid sleeve; a latch cam on said latch having a camming surfaceextending forwardly at an angle with respect to the axis of saidtelescoping sleeve and piston housing; and a mating breech block cammingsurface on said breech block member adapted to engage said latch cam andforce it to retract from the path of said piston when said breech blockmember is telescoped rearwardly over said piston housing, whereby saidpiston is released, and driven by said spring, against said striker headto operate said firing pin.

4. A gun triggered by muzzle Contact with a target body, which gunincludes: a breech block member having an axial ring pin bore and arearwardly projecting sleeve; a piston housing telescopically receivedinto said sleeve; a piston reciprocable within said piston housing, anda piston rod extending rearwardly from said piston through a piston rodbore in the rear of said piston housing; a spiral spring within saidpiston housing rearward of said piston, and urging said piston towardsthe rear end of said tiring pin bore; a tiring pin reciprocable in saidring pin bore, said firing pin having an enlarged striker head rearwardof said tiring pin bore and enclosed with- :in the forward end of saidsleeve; a safety pin transversely received through said sleeve betweenthe forward end of said pin and said striker head; a firing tube meansthreadably received on the forward end of said breech block member, andhaving target-engaging barbs disposed at the muzzle end; a pistonretaining latch mounted on said piston housing rearward of said sleeve,said piston latch comprising a forwardly extending leaf spring member,and inwardly extending piston dog resiliently urged by said leaf springmember into engagement with said piston through mating slot openings inthe side walls of said piston housing and said sleeve; a latch cam onthe forward end of said latch having a camming surface extendingforwardly at an angle with respect to the axis of said telescopingsleeve and piston housing; and a mating breech block camming surface onsaid breech block member adapted to engage said latch cam and force itto retract said dog from the path of said piston when said breech blockmember is telescoped rearwardly over said piston housing, whereby saidpiston is released, and driven by said spring, against said striker headto operate said firing pin.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,668,432 Thorstenson May 1, 1928 2,659,273 v Trautmann Nov. 17, 19532,667,814 Blackmon Feb. 2, 1954 2,691,844 Smith Oct. 19, 1954

1. A GUN TRIGGERED BY MUZZLE CONTACT, WHICH GUN INCLUDES: A BREECH BLOCKMEMBER HAVING AN AXIAL FIRING PIN MEANS AND A REARWARDLY PROJECTINGSLEEVE; A PISTON HOUSING TELESCOPICALLY RECEIVED INTO SAID SLEEVE; APISTON RECIPROCABLE WITHIN SAID PISTON HOUSING; A SPRING WITHIN SAIDPISTON HOUSING URGING SAID PISTON TOWARDS SAID FIRING PIN MEANS; AFIRING TUBE MEANS ON THE FORWARD END OF SAID BREECH BLOCK MEMBER; APISTON-RETAINING LATCH MOUNTED ON SAID PISTON HOUSING REARWARD OF SAIDSLEEVE, AND LOCATED TO HOLD SAID SPRING IN A CONDITION OF COMPRESSION; ALATCH CAM ON SAID LATCH HAVING A CAMMING SURFACE EXTENDING FORWARDLY ATAN ANGLE WITH RESPECT TO THE AXIS OF SAID TELESCOPING SLEEVE AND PISTONHOUSING; AND A MATING BREECH BLOCK CAMMING SURFACE ON SAID BREECH BLOCKMEMBER FORMED TO MOVE SAID LATCH CAM OUT OF LATCHING ENGAGEMENT WITHSAID PISTON WHEN SAID BREECH BLOCK MEMBER IS TELESCOPED REARWARDLY OVERSAID PISTON HOUSING, WHEREBY SAID PISTON IS RELEASED, AND DRIVEN BY SAIDSPRING, AGAINST SAID FIRING PIN MEANS.